Into The Depths
by runwild14
Summary: A series of one shots on the reactions of everybody when Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus. Enjoy!
1. Extended Summary and Copyright

This story will be a collection of one-shots, for the most part unrelated to each other - meaning, when one ends, that's it for that character. These one-shots will attempt to accurately convey what each character, to the best of my knowledge, is experiencing emotionally when told that Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have fallen into Tartarus. I'm not sure how many chapters this will be, as I'm assuming that I will just continue until I run out of recommendations. Many of the chapters say that they are edited - this is true in terms of content; however, when I complete this collection, I will be going through and changing it all to present tense because I started this a couple years ago and it sounds really odd to me reading it all in past tense (I'll still be writing future updates in past tense so that they all read the same way, but those will be changed later on too). Also, I'll probably be changing them all to third person to make it a smoother read.

Copyright © 2015 runwild14.

All rights reserved.

No part of this story or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials.


	2. Thalia

**Disclaimer - I don't own PJO and I never will**

***THIS HAS BEEN EDITED***

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**Thalia POV**

The hunt had to stop in Wyoming because Lady Artemis was summoned to an emergency meeting on Olympus. _Again_. Which was really a huge inconvenience, seeing as how we were in the middle of hunting the _Chimera_ of all things. You know, the big ugly fire breathing Chihuahua? And it was just starting to get interesting. We had finally pissed it off to the point of leaving that stupid Chihuahua form and turning into an actual beast. But then the stupid gods had to go and get in the way of our hunt. So that sucks.

What's even worse is that Lady Artemis didn't think we were strong enough to take it on by ourselves! Like, yeah freaking right. We were the best hunting force in the history of mankind. Plus, Percy had killed this thing on his first quest – and he's a _boy_. Also, she hadn't told us what the meeting was about, not even me, which hurt a little seeing as I was her lieutenant and all. More alarming was the fact that usually milady didn't keep anything from us, but by the look on her face when she left, whatever this meeting was about wasn't a good thing. She had left a little over an hour ago, and she was _still_ up there. I was actually beginning to worry a little bit, because a meeting had not taken this long since before Olympus was closed, and I had no idea what could possibly be important enough to have Lady Artemis stop such a fun – sorry, I mean dangerous – hunt. And I know she's a great powerful goddess, but we're family, so we're allowed to worry about her.

At the moment though, I was wandering through the woods around camp, pondering what to do if milady didn't return soon. Honestly, I'd probably just order the girls to move out so we could continue our hunt. I mean come on, what's the worst that could happen? As I was walking, I was trying to take the time to admire the forest. Ever since I had obtained Lady Artemis' blessing, I had loved being in forests even more than I already did. I was trying to take in the beauty around me, but I couldn't shake this strange sense of foreboding that I was feeling. I was hoping nothing had gone wrong at the meeting and that it was just my dad being his usual dramatic self, but I wasn't so sure.

Suddenly, the bushes to my left rustled and out jumped one of my sisters, Jessie. When she saw me she let out a sigh of relief. "Lady Artemis wants to see you," she said. I opened my mouth to reply, but she cut me off before I could get a word out. "She says its urgent." I shut my mouth and gave her a quick nod of thanks before immediately setting off at a dead sprint towards milady's tent. It wasn't long before I reached the camp and after weaving my way to the center, I found myself standing outside Lady Artemis' tent. I knocked quickly on the wooden post next to the opening and soon heard Lady Artemis yell, "Come in!"

When I entered the tent, I saw Lady Artemis sitting on her bed with her normal fierce, yet somehow neutral expression. When she noticed me she beckoned me over to her, and I sat down on the rugs in front of her. "Thalia," milady said, "I'm going to be very blunt with you okay?" I silently nodded, beginning to wonder what this was about. Maybe she found out about those cookies I stole. Or even worse, what if she found out about that time when we stopped in Oregon and I – "Perseus and Annabeth have fallen into Tartarus." _Excuse me?_ "They what?", I asked. Because surely she couldn't have said what I thought she just said. They couldn't possibly be _that _stupid and unlucky. There isn't even an opening to Tartarus that I know of. There's absolutely no way that's true. I refuse to believe it. But then, she told me how. And the thing was – I could _picture _it happening. It's so like Annabeth to have a plan that freaking brilliant, although I'm surprised she didn't see the web. And it's so like that stupid Kelp Head to agree to jump into the pits of hell (kind of dangerous you idiot) to keep her safe. Him and his stupid loyalty. And their stupid love – _ughh_ – I told them it would get them killed one day. _Killed_.As in dead. Percy and Annabeth. Gone. Oh my gods my two best friends were dead. In that moment, my world stopped. I could faintly hear Lady Artemis trying to console me, but all I could focus on were the beats of my heart.

Percy and Annabeth, the two people closest to me, had fallen into Tartarus.

_Thump._

Tartarus, the deepest pit of hell on the planet.

_Thump._

Percy and Annabeth.

_Thump._

Tartarus.

_Thump._

They were gone.

_Thump._

Gone.

"–alia. Thalia. Thalia listen to me." It took me a while, but when I finally stopped hyperventilating I noticed that Lady Artemis was shaking me. "_What?_", I snapped, letting my anger overwhelm me. "What could _possibly_ be so important that you can't allow me to grieve for my own family?" I expected her to tell me the hunt needed to pack up and move on, but what she said surprised me almost as much as before.

"They aren't dead, Thalia."

"What do you mean they aren't dead? They're in hell, in case you weren't aware." I could hardly even believe I just took that kind of tone with milady, but I didn't have time to reflect on that. There were much more pressing matters at hand.

"Percy and Annabeth are alive, Thalia. I don't know how anyone could survive that fall, but somehow they did. And they're going to try to make it out of the doors of Death."

I looked up at her, realization slowing dawning on me. They were alive. There was hope – not much of it, but it was there. And where there was hope, the hunt was there. We were going to meet them at those doors…

Death be damned.

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**A/N - Let me know what you guys thought about this by leaving a review. They really help motivate me to continue writing. Thanks!**

**-runwild14**


	3. Poseidon

**Disclaimer - I don't own PJO and I never will**

***THIS HAS BEEN EDITED***

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**Poseidon POV**

My day had not been going well so far. I did not have a very good sleep because my trip to Morpheus' realm was plagued with nightmares-and yes, gods do get those. Which is really dumb, by the way, because we keep telling him to stay out of our heads, but he never listens. Something will have to be done about that. When I woke up, I was immediately rushed off to a meeting by Delphin, where I spent the rest of my day listening to useless war plans and complaints – seriously, none of these will ever be used. Because of this, I was unable to check up on my son as I usually did every time he went on a quest. And yes, we gods normally do check up of our kids pretty often, regardless of what the stories say about us. We care – it's just, we have a really tough time showing it. It's like if you took a bunch of bad parents and put them all together, except our awful parenting is amplified because of our power. It's a lot more noticeable.

I was brought out of my musings when a hand was waved in front of my face. Looking up, I saw that the owner of the hand was none other than Delphin. And yes, I do mean hand. I know he's a dolphin and all, but seriously you people are so stereotypical. Not all dolphins have to have flippers. Some, like Delphin, can have hands. But still, refrain from mentioning the flipper/hand situation around him – he was bullied about it a lot as a kid. It took me a few seconds to realize that he must have been talking to me, for the entire room was awaiting my response. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" I asked rather sheepishly.

Delphin sighed in exasperation before saying, "I was asking if you had anything to add." Upon realizing that adding something would prolong this stupid meeting, even if it was something helpful like "_Hey, all of these plans are awful_", I said, "Oh, no I don't have anything to add, meeting dismissed." With that, everybody left the room except for Delphin, and it seemed like he had something to say. As if reading my thoughts, Delphin spoke. "Milord, is anything bothering you? With all due respect, you looked horrible during that meeting." I sighed before responding, "As you know Delphin, Percy is on a quest right now and since we have been having all of these war meetings I haven't been able to check up on him. It's been driving me insane." Delphin gave me a sympathetic look before saying, "We'll I'm sure you'll think of something milord," and exiting the room. That smartass. Of course I'll think of something, I'm a god. I could literally snap my fingers and find out what Percy's up to. Wait, that's it!

Just as I was about to snap my fingers, a loud rumbling could be heard from the surface. Thunder. Zeus was calling a council meeting - again. Why couldn't he just wait for our monthly meetings like every other god? _So much for checking up on Percy_, I thought before flashing to Olympus and taking a seat on my throne. As I looked around, I saw Hestia was the only other person here - not even Zeus was here, and he was the idiot who called this meeting in the first place. She was sitting at the hearth and honestly looked a little lonely, so I gave her a warm smile. She smiled back and I was instantly filled with warmth. I gave her a nod of thanks before turning back to watch the other gods flash in.

One by one, the other gods began to appear in the throne room. First came Athena in a flash of grey light, then Artemis in silver, Apollo in gold, and so on. Eventually, it got to the point where only Zeus was missing. There was a collective groan coming from all of the gods because I think we all knew what was coming next. Sure enough, after a few seconds to 'build up tension' as Zeus put it, a huge lightning bolt hit the center of the room. When it disappeared, Zeus stood in the place where the bolt had struck. Looking around for recognition of his amazing entrance, he got a few halfhearted claps and cheers. He quickly walked over to his throne and sat down. Clearing his throat, he began the meeting.

"So I'm sure all of you are wondering why I have called everybody here today. It has come to my attention that the quest has taken a slight turn for the worse." It was at this point that I started to really pay attention. My _son_was on that quest and anything concerning my son concerned me. Without his usual dramatics, Zeus continued. "Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase have fallen into Tartarus."

When he said that, I froze. It took me a couple moments to fully process the news Zeus had just delivered. "No," I whispered in shock. "He couldn't have."

Zeus just looked at me, holding his grave expression. "You're lying!" I yelled at him, venting all of my anger at the situation on him. "Please - you _have _to be." But all he did was shake his head. "You did this! You made him take all those quests! You wanted this!" I continued to scream at him, waves of anger pulsing off of me. And he just stood there and took it. I kept looking around, frantically, hoping and praying that somebody would agree with me. My son couldn't be gone. Not like that. When nobody did, my heart shattered as the realization that I may never again see my favorite son sank in. I finally let the tears fall freely down my face, before flashing to Atlantis to continue my mourning in the comfort of my home.

When I reached my palace I went straight to my room. Shutting the door, I expelled the buildup of anger into one massive blast. Everything in the room around me crumbled in front of my eyes, just as my life was. Still shaking with grief, I stumbled over to the rubble of my bed. As I laid on the spot that it used to occupy in my palace, only one thought came to mind.

_Come back for me Percy. Do the impossible once again, my son._

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**A/N - Let me know what you guys thought about this by leaving a review. They really help motivate me to continue writing. Thanks!**

**-runwild14**


	4. Athena

**Disclaimer - I don't own PJO and I never will**

***THIS HAS BEEN EDITED***

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**Athena POV**

I sighed in frustration as I threw another crumpled piece of paper in the general direction of the growing pile to my left, before turning back to my desk and continuing my efforts for the new design of the right wing of my temple. I had been working on these blueprints for two weeks now, shutting myself inside my office for days at a time, and I had still accomplished nothing. If I was being completely honest with myself, I should've stopped trying long ago. I knew exactly why I couldn't find the right design within my thoughts. I lacked the inspiration needed for a brilliant design, and being the Goddess of Wisdom, I would settle for nothing less than perfection. Nevertheless, I began to draw out another potential layout for the addition, knowing as I did so that I may as well just throw the paper away right now and get it over with.

Just as my pencil once again started to brush it's point across the paper, a blast of thunder shook my temple, and I could only hope that the council meeting my father had just called for wouldn't add more blandness to my day, although I didn't see how that was possible. Setting the pencil back down on the desk, I stood up, checked my attire to make sure I was dressed in something formal enough, and flashed out of my temple.

When I arrived in the throne room I was surprised to see that I was not the first to arrive. Poseidon was already sitting on his throne, looking very worn out for some reason. I gave a quick nod of greeting to my rival, which he returned with a barely discernible nod in response. I then made my way over to my throne and took a seat, growing to my godly height as I did so. Turning my attention back to the rest of the room, I watched as the other gods arrived and took their seats. Apollo was one of the last to arrive, staying true to his immature habits, and once he had taken his seat my father made his usual dramatic appearance, crashing in within a bolt of lightning. Seeing that everybody was already here, he took his seat quickly and cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention.

As I focused completely on my father, I noticed that his face looked unnaturally grim, and I knew immediately that he came bearing grave news. It appeared that the other gods noticed this as well because all of us were now sitting up straighter, anxious to hear the reason of this council meeting. Thankfully, Zeus felt no need to beat around the bush today, so we didn't have long to wait.

"So I'm sure all of you are wondering why I have called everybody here today. It has come to my attention that the quest has taken a slight turn for the worse." When he was sure he had every pair of eyes focused solely on him, Zeus continued.

"Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase have fallen into Tartarus."

That one sentence almost sent me into hysterics, but being the Goddess of Wisdom, I managed to keep a poker face. On the inside though, I was in an immense amount of emotional trauma. I knew right away that Zeus was not lying, and I was already starting to plot out what happened in my head. I was faintly aware of Poseidon muttering an almost silent, "No" and many of the other gods almost falling off their thrones in shock. I took a few moments to let it sink in, and when Poseidon began his tirade, I was able to flash out without drawing attention. I ended up back in my temple and I collapsed on the nearest piece of furniture, which luckily was a very comfortable couch. No matter what any other deities thought of me, I loved all of my children very dearly. But because I was portrayed as a strong, fierce goddess, I had to keep an emotionless mask on at all times. It was for this reason that I never had very good relationships with my demigod children – even Annabeth, the daughter of which I was proudest. Hearing that my favorite daughter had fallen into the deepest pit of hell left me sobbing on my couch for most of the afternoon.

Eventually though, my goddess instincts took over. When I felt that I had mourned for long enough, I got up and decided that I needed a distraction. With that thought in mind, I made my way back to my office and set to work on my designs. I had the perfect spark of inspiration for the right wing of my temple. I worked on for hours into the night, drowning my sorrows in work, and finished the blueprints early the next morning. I immediately shipped the blueprints off to Hephaestus and asked him to get some of his best automatons started on the project (Also, I threatened to cut off each and every one of his limbs if it was not perfect, but that's not important).

And when I walked through the completed right wing a week later, admiring all of the statues of my children, with their achievements decorating the walls, I realized that I had been blessed with the best inspiration of all; the kind of inspiration that only the best children could give. At that moment, I knew in my heart that with the kind of things Annabeth had been through in her short life, she would find her way out of the pit (But if that stupid spawn of the sea god let my daughter die, I'd skin him alive. Unfortunately, he seemed to care about her too much to let that happen). And I swore to myself that when she did, I would take her and the rest of my children on a personal tour of my temple. And I would make sure to showcase the right wing in all it's glory.

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**A/N - Let me know what you guys thought about this by leaving a review. They really help motivate me to continue writing. Thanks!**

**-runwild14**


	5. Hades

**Disclaimer - I don't own PJO and I never will**

***THIS HAS BEEN EDITED***

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**Hades POV**

"…and the EZ-Death lines have somehow become backed up as well. The average souls per day through that line has been almost cut in half since just last week!" I sighed as my head security ghoul finished reading the weekly report. Every line in the underworld was backed up, the lobby in DOA was overflowing, heck even the Styx was moving sluggishly. This was starting to become a huge problem, and even with Daedalus working overtime the problem was growing. People just needed to stop dying. Seriously, it's almost as if people have finally started giving my domain good reviews on the line – at least, I think that's how word gets out these days. If nobody died, there wouldn't be an issue. But everyone just keeps on passing away and joining me in the Underworld. Stupid humans.

Suddenly an idea came to me, and I cursed myself for not thinking of it earlier. Turning back to my head ghoul, I listed my demands. "Set up another panel of judges and expand the Fields of Asphodel. Tell Charon he can have his pay raise when the lobby is cleared of souls-and I mean correctly, not just forcing them to. Also, inform Thanatos that he will also receive a pay raise if he helps Charon along with his regular duties. Go!" The ghoul gave a quick bow before rushing off to see to it that my orders were carried out.

Deciding that I needed some fresh air – or at least as fresh as the air gets in my domain – to clear my mind, I got up from my throne and made my way out the back of the palace. I began to walk, no real destination in mind, as I thought about how the decision I just made will affect the Underworld. I'm hoping that expanding the Fields of Asphodel will allow spirits to pass through the EZ-Death lines more quickly, which will in turn allow more souls to be ferried across the river Styx by Charon-as long as he has the incentive of a pay raise. And with the help of Thanatos, I'm hoping to get the DOA lobby cleared for a short time so that it too can be expanded to make more room for souls as they wait for their trip to my realm. Spending your afterlife in the Fields of Asphodel isn't very appealing, but it's far better than waiting in the DOA forever. Plus, maybe at some point I'll add another afterlife destination – that would really help the situation. I'll have to talk to Daedalus about that – and probably fill out a ton of paperwork.

I was pulled out of my thinking by a strangle feeling in my subconscious. It was only barely making it's presence known to me, just tickling the back of my mind, but I could feel it. The only problem was that I couldn't recognize the feeling. It struck a faint chord in my memory, but I haven't felt this in centuries, at least. I began to follow the feeling along the banks of the river, slowly making my way deeper into the darkness. Usually I was able to see perfectly fine in the dark – seeing as how I'm the god of the Underworld and all that jazz, but in this darkness I was as blind as anybody else would be. It was with that thought that I recognized the feeling. Something of significance had taken place in my domain. Actually, I shouldn't say 'in' it. Technically it happened at the edge of my domain, where it collides with something much more sinister. This strange happening had taken place in the deepest reaches of the land of the dead, a place where even I had rarely been. The entrance to Tartarus.

I had been to the entrance of the pit before of course, but I had never dared to venture into the realm of the primordial god before. That place was the physical embodiment of hell. It breathed lava. It was made from jagged rock and had all five of the terrible rivers of the Underworld in it. It was a place no man in their right mind would ever go. The only beings that went there were monsters or titans, and the occasional unlucky demigod. Not many survived that place, and if they did they were scarred forever. I had seen it happen before. It happened to my son, Nico, and he hasn't been the same since. It wasn't like his personality had taken a complete 180-degree turn, but he had changed – that was for sure. But if I were to dwell on that for too long, I would leave myself open to attack. After all, I was not in the friendliest place.

Focusing on the feeling that led me here, I closed my eyes and began concentrating on the reason behind the urge to come here. As I delved deeper into the feeling, I began to see images. The first one was of a demigod hanging on to a ledge while holding up another demigod. The next was of the same two demigods falling off of the ledge and into the darkness below. The next series of images went by much faster, and I was only able to catch glimpses of jagged rock and foggy air. I knew at once what had happened. Two demigods had fallen into Tartarus. But not just any demigods-no, I knew these ones. Perseus and the daughter of Athena.

I cared little for the daughter of Athena, but I admit I was worried for my nephew. He was like an older brother to Nico and I know my son would be devastated if anything were to happen to him. Also, I respect the boy a great deal for helping me earn back my status in the godly world. It would be a shame to see the boy die with so much life left to live, and I knew that my brother would take millennia to recover. His children always meant the world to him, but Perseus was more important to Poseidon than the others. And plus, I'm finally starting to thin up my lines and knowing that upstart, he would manage to screw up my hard work. So for the sake of my realm, I really hope he doesn't die down there. But if he does, I guess it means Nico would visit more often, so that would be a nice change. And maybe the daughter of Athena would be able to help with my overpopulation problem. So really, it's a win-win situation for me.

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**A/N - Let me know what you guys thought about this by leaving a review. They really help motivate me to continue writing. Thanks!**

**-runwild14**


	6. Chapter 5 - Editing Complete

**I have finished the editing for the story so far, but as I publish new chapters I will be going back through and editing again. Hopefully, I should start writing more chapters in about a month - I have to edit my other stories first.**

**Thanks for your patience guys**

**-runwild14**


	7. Stress

Alright I know you guys want an update - trust me, I've gotten enough reviews and PMs to know - but I need to get this off my chest. I have been so incredibly freaking stressed out lately. And I'm trying to push through and update, I really am, but I have to go through and edit each and every single one of my stories first. And trust me, not only is it not fun at all, but it also takes an incredibly long time to do. I want to put out an update as much as you want to see an update - cause I really want to get back to writing completely, but I'm not superhuman - **I have a life outside of writing****_._**

I didn't want to bring this up, but some of you haven't been very patient, and while I'm glad to know you like my work, I need time in order to put out something good, especially with all the stress I'm facing. For those of you who don't believe me, let me tell you how my last couple days have been.

For the past couple weeks, I've been preparing for a Socratic seminar in Spanish. For those that don't know what that is, you basically sit in a circle and discuss random stuff. Get this - I hate Spanish. It's the only class where I truly feel like an idiot, and that's not a good feeling. So anyway, I spent those two weeks preparing for it. And then, the day came where I would have to step foot into the fiery pit of hell and sit in a group of six people and discuss social relations in Latin American countries. Doesn't that just sound like an absolute blast? It wasn't. Even after all that studying, it was pretty rough. Really rough. And then instead of going to my next period, I had to go to this stupid IB meeting where they just talked about the same thing for an hour and a half. A complete waste of time. The next couple periods I had a test and I spent the rest of the time stressing over an essay that I had to take after school that I was unable to study for because of the Spanish stuff. I'm pretty sure I failed that essay too. And while I was taking that essay, a teacher that I really love got super pissed at us because some of the people were remediating an EK and they had waited until the deadline to do it, so that forced this teacher to stay after even though he wasn't supposed to, which made him unable to go to his second job. He does all of this to support his equally amazing family, and being on the other end of his anger really wasn't a good feeling. Anyway that kinda screwed me up for the rest of the day. When I got home, I remembered that I had a physics lab due the next day - at 8:04 IN THE MORNING. So I started that at 6:00PM and I worked on it until 3:30 the next morning. And I did a crappy job on it, so I'll be getting a bad grade on that too. So the next day I was functioning on two and a half hours of sleep, so of course I had to have a test first thing. I failed that too. I kind of sleep walked my way through Friday because I had gotten a grand total of eight hour of sleep the previous two nights combined. And then of course today (Saturday) I had a track meet. I got there at 6:30AM. Care to guess what time I left? 10:30. PM. And I had two really awful races, because a lot of how you race depends on how you slept two nights before. So I'm in a crappy mood. And I'm trying to edit stories. So yeah.

I'm sorry that turned into a rant, and thank you to those of you that read the entire thing. Anyway, hopefully you get my point. I was under a ton of stress, and any writing I manage to get done while under that much stress is really bad, so I wasn't going to put you through that. There is some good news. Winter break is finally here. Updates are on their way. I've now finished editing all stories except Moros: Assassin of Chaos. I have three out of nine chapters edited in that one. I'm getting there. Good things come to those who wait. Please be patient. And if you can't wait that long, I have multiple other tories for you to read. Or, you can read other stores on this wonderful site. Trust me. You'll make it.

Thanks to the majority of you who are understanding.

see you soon

-runwild14


	8. Sally

**Disclaimer - I don't own PJO and I never will**

***WHERE DID THE LINE BREAK GO***

**SALLY POV**

I hummed quietly to myself as I bustled about the kitchen, collecting various pots and pans and returning them to their rightful cupboards. I had just finished baking some cookies, so - as expected - the kitchen was a complete mess. Ingredients were scattered across the counters, and the counters themselves were dusted with flour. Some people prefer to clean as they go, but I would much rather save it all until the end. I wasn't a huge advocate for kitchen cleanliness anyway, so it's not like I was hurting anyone.

As I continued to put everything away, there were multiple knocks on the front door. Confused, I brushed my hands off on my apron and quickly made my way through the apartment. I wasn't expecting any visitors today, so I wasn't entirely certain the knocks had even come from my front door and not one of the neighbors'. My doubts were extinguished moments later though, because as I reached the front, more knocks came, each one violentlyshaking the door.

"I'm coming," I called out, still slightly confused as to who was calling at my house at this time of the night.

When I finally reached the door, I grabbed the doorknob and quickly swung it open.

The two police officers standing outside of my apartment were quite surprised at the sudden movement, but they quickly regained their composure.

"Mrs. Jackson-Blofis," the one on the right questioned, his tone formal.

"That's me," I responded cautiously, not yet fully recovered from the sight of two NYPD officers standing outside my door in the dead of the night.

"May we come in?"

That was the other officer, and although it was phrased as a question, it was clearly not one.

"Of course," I replied, slowly stepping back and granting them access to my home. They thanked me and came inside taking the seats that I offered to them in the dining room. I offered them each some of the cookies that I had just made, which they graciously declined. "You'll have to excuse the mess gentlemen," I said. "I wasn't expecting visitors." They brushed it off easily, telling me it isn't a big deal. "You should see my life," the second one joked. We shared a quick laugh at that, but the officers faces soon became grim as they remembered the reason for their visit. Noticing this, I braced herself for whatever news they had come to deliver.

"Mrs. Jackson-Blofis," the first one began quietly. "When was the last time you saw your son, Percy Jackson?"

I sucked in a sharp breath as the reason for their appearance began to crystallize. Stumbling over my words, I forced out a reply, knowing all the while that the more I spoke, the more real the situation would be. "I-I don't know exactly w-when, o-officer. Maybe a few w-weeks?" I was close to tears at this point as I began to imagine what could have happened to my only child.

The two officers shared a look, as though their fears were just confirmed by my response. The second one laid a hand gently on my arm and delivered the news I had been desperately trying to avoid ever since Percy first stepped foot in Camp Half-Blood.

"Ma'am, two days ago there was a massive explosion in Rome. Witnesses reported seeing a boy that matches your son's description enter the building moments prior to the explosion. Police and firefighters searched the scene for thirty-six hours. There were no survivors. I'm so terribly sorry for your loss."

He continued to talk, saying something about the city helping me out in my time of mourning, but I had completely tuned him out. The noises of my surroundings were reduced to a faint ringing in my ears as I struggled to process what I had just been told. I simply couldn't grasp that after everything - all the battles, all the near-death experiences - my son was just gone. Just like that. I wouldn't believe it. I held on to the faint hope that the officers were wrong. They're mortals, after all - they probably don't know what they're talking about. Yeah, I told myself, that's what it is. They can't be right. He can't be gone.

I quickly shooed the officers out of my apartment, ignoring their protests. I admired the fact that they wouldn't leave a person to mourn alone, but - gods - I had stuff to do. Stuff that started with calling up Chiron and finding out what the Hades was going on.

I quickly grabbed the phone and dialed the number that I knew by heart, impatiently tapping my foot against the ground as the phone continued to ring. Eventually, the phone went to voicemail and I slammed it down in frustration. I grabbed my coat and keys and headed for the door, determined to get answers. I hopped in the car and began the drive to camp, still holding on to the hope that my son was alive.

When I arrived at the camp, I immediately jumped out of the car and headed in the direction of the Big House. I bumped into Clarisse at the top of the hill, and she granted me access without a moment's hesitation. I reached the Big House and barged in without bothering to announce my presence. I walked through the hall and marched right into Chiron's office. He looked up when I entered, not surprised at all that I was there, and before I could even speak he put me at ease.

"He's fine, Sally. He's alive."

I sunk into the chair in front of his desk and let out a huge sigh of relief. No matter how much I had been telling myself that he was alive, it was still hard to believe when presented with all of the facts. He's alive, I thought. He's okay. It became my mantra throughout the remainder of our conversation. Chiron told me everything that has happened, including where Percy is now, but - it's okay.

He's alive and everything's okay.

***YOU KNOW WHATS NOT OKAY? NO LINE BREAKS***

**A/N - Let me know what you guys thought about this by leaving a review. They really help motivate me to continue writing. Thanks!**

**-runwild14**


	9. IMPORTANT

I've recently entered a contest on the new Radish app. Online voting for the contest just opened up - please check my Twitter for the link to vote (runwild14)

Please go vote for "The Eye" under the Science Fiction category if you have the time.

Plus, if you do this there is a much greater incentive for me to finish these ongoing stories.

thanks a bunch

-runwild14


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